INDEX homes & gardens Flowers to enjoy
What should we be looking forward to in our February gardens? Top of the list has to be hellebores – otherwise known as the Christmas or Lenten Rose. These perennials have the most elegant fl owers imaginable and it seems amazing that they love a north or north-east facing site. All you need to do is to provide them with rich, well-drained soil in dappled shade and gently cut back leaves to ensure you gain the best view of the nodding heads. These are easy plants to grow but not always the easiest fl owers to view because they tend to face downwards. Perhaps the ideal position is
A touch of
in raised beds or on top of a retaining wall. Broadview Gardens at Hadlow College,
near Tonbridge, holds the National Collection of Hellebores and offers guided tours during February and March. This year the tours are combined with ‘winter colour’ appreciation, which includes vibrant stems of cornus and willow. They take place on Sunday 15th,
Saturday 21st, Sunday 22nd, Saturday 28th February and Sunday, 1st March at 11am and 2pm (£3 per person, group discounts available). Booking is essential. • Visit
www.broadviewgardens.co.uk or call 01732 853211.
the exotic Hundreds of exotic butterfl ies will be released into The Glasshouse at the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) Garden Wisley, in Surrey, this winter so that visitors wandering through will be able to see beauties such as blue morpho, giant owl, king swallowtail and colourful Malay lacewing fl uttering among the tropical plantings. The tree ferns, tall palms, lush-
leaved creepers and dazzling fl ower displays that make up the tropical paradise of The Glasshouse provide an exciting and dramatic backdrop to the event, and the exotic butterfl ies will be free to fl y among the fl owers and fruit of the nectar plants. Visitors delighting at the colours and sizes of the butterfl ies fl ying around Wisley’s ‘jungle’ may even be lucky and have one land on them if they can keep still enough! These wonderful butterfl ies will be seen feeding from fruits and sweet liquids at special feeding stations, and there will be opportunities to learn about the life cycle of butterfl ies at the special puparium. Children can enjoy creating a
fl apping butterfl y or sowing butterfl y- friendly seeds during the half-term week (14th to 22nd February), when activities will run every day.
And a new addition for 2015 is a display in the garden of sculptures depicting butterfl ies and caterpillars by Alison Catchlove, an artist based nearby in Shere. Her work has been inspired by her visits to Butterfl ies in The Glasshouse in previous years. The event is free with normal garden entry. • For more information, visit the website
www.rhs.org.uk/wisley
The INDEX magazine
www.indexmagazine.co.uk
4 THINGS TO DO IN THE GARDEN THIS MONTH
1. Prune winter-fl owering shrubs once fl owers have faded. These include bush honeysuckle, buddleja, cornus, winter jasmine and wisteria. Deciduous grasses that you have been enjoying all winter can be cut back, ready for their new spring growth. 2. Summer-fl owering clematis can also be pruned towards the end of the month and the same goes for hardy fuchsias. 3. Vegetable seed-beds can be prepared by removing weeds and forking in compost. You can begin to force rhubarb for an early crop, and start chitting early potatoes, placing them on end in a frost- free, bright, cool place. 4. Cut autumn-fruiting raspberry canes to the ground to encourage fresh canes to grow. Prune apple and pear trees but leave stone-fruit trees such as cherry and plum until summer as they are susceptible to disease.
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